William M. Dowd reports and comments on the world of wine. (From Dowd's Guides)

20120406

Cornell preserving East Coast wine history

A historic poster in the collection.

• From the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

ITHACA -- From historical records to bottle labels, an archive at Cornell
University is quietly collecting and preserving materials related to the
East Coast wine industry.

Established in
1998 as part of the university’s rare book and manuscript collections,
the Eastern Wine and Grape Archive contains documents, records,
marketing collateral and ephemera from wineries and vineyards dating
back to the 19th Century.

Presently,
Cornell is the only American university with an ongoing program to
document wine production and consumption in the United States.

Finger
Lakes materials in the archive include 19th Century documents from
Pleasant Valley Wine Co. in Hammondsport, Steuben County. The winery,
which remains open and operational, was founded in 1860 and first
invested in equipment to produce sparkling wine during the Civil War.

The materials do not circulate and must be viewed in the library’s reading room.